MacSpeech Dictate becomes Dragon Dictate 2.0

Something we have been hard at work on in the Dictate Australia office over the last few weeks has been testing the beta for the latest product from Nuance, new owners of MacSpeech, Dragon Dictate.

Now we can finally dare to mention the words Dragon Dictate as Nuance officially launch the new name for MacSpeech Dictate and start to ram home the Nuance look and feel on this voice recognition software for Intel Mac.

The Nuance influence is not just seen on the new box design which now makes Dictate look like the Windows Dragon NaturallySpeaking range but also in the flood of features and enhancements built into this latest and greatest version of the software.

Upgrades are available for all owners of MacSpeech Dictate from version 1.0 upto the last release version 1.5.9. If you tried MacSpeech Dictate at version 1.0 and gave up you really should take the plunge again and take up Nuance's generous upgrade offer.

Upgrades from MacSpeech Dictate and the full edition are available in Australia now as a download. Boxed copies will be here in October and pre-orders are being taken now through the MacSpeech Australia website.

For a full run down of upgrade options and some insight into whats new click through to our main blog.

Dictate Australia Become Windows & Mac Voice Recognition Experts

Listen, listen carefully ... in the distance you might be able to catch the sound of trumpets !! That's us, Dictate Australia, blowing our own trumpets as we have proudly just become Certified Dragon NaturallySpeaking Certified Gold Resellers .. not silver or bronze - GOLD resellers.

Apologies for the excitement but we are quite proud. To become a Gold reseller we work closely with Nuance Australia and have to study and sit exams. This study gives us an insight into all aspects of Dragon NaturallySpeaking and gives us the skills to advise our customers of the best Dragon package or setup to suit their needs.

We are also claiming expertise in the Mac side of the voice recognition fence. We claim this title as we have been advocates for MacSpeech Dictate since day one. We were on board with version 1.0 in Australia and have followed the success of MacSPeech Dictate up to where it is today, sitting at version 1.5 with alot more goodies to come in the near future. How do we know that for sure? Well we are beta testers for MacSpeech Dictate so we can see into the future and the future is good.

If you have been considering a voice or speech recognition solution for your Windows or Mac platform please get in touch. There is no hard sell here, we will tell you what we know and will advise you on what we think is best for you.

MacSpeech Dictate Announce Paid Upgrade To Version 1.5 - What Does This Mean For Australian Users

In a press release out today from MacSpeech they have anounced a new upgrade available for their popular voice recognition software for Mac, MacSpeech Dictate.

This however is the first paid upgrade, all previous upgrades have been free. This has caused some consternation from US MacSpeech users in the US on both twitter and the MacSpeech forum.

What does this mean for Australian user for MacSpeech Dictate?  Click on the blog title above for a run down of whats in the upgrade and common questions Aussie MacSpeech users have.

MacSpeech Dictate Announce Upgrade To Version 1.3

In a press release from MacSpeech in the US they today announced that MacSpeech Dictate is now on version 1.3, an upgrade freely available to registered uses of Dictate via the Check For Updates feature.

So whats new in 1.3?

New "Cache Document" command which instructs Dictate to read any document, even those now created by Dictate. This allows easier/better/smarter navigation within a document. Sounds good, will give that a try very soon.

Also added is the "Cache Selection" command, again another way to get around the old problem of cursor positioning within a document.

And two more commands to add to your headspace, "Press The Key" and "Press The Key Combo" allowing keyboard entries and key combinations to be input by voice.

Aswell as this new command is the usual bug fixes, a new Help Book system and some additional indicators to show the Mic status.

This is just a quick post as the release has just come out. In the next few days I will give them a try and as usual post to my YouTube channel.

Excellent work from the guys at MacSpeech. The frequency of the updates is increasing and we are starting to see more and more functionality coming through and small niggly bugs being hit on the head. Early adopters have a large smile on their face now and new users will be impressed with the power of this software.

To read the press release click here.

Pop In For A Demo Of Dragon, MacSpeech or Olympus Digital Voice Recorders

Dictate Australia Pty Ltd recently moved into new offices in Erina on the New South Wales Central Coast, we share our offices with our sister company The Transcription People.


We are now in a position to demo the Dragon NaturallySpeaking voice recognition software, MacSpeech Dictate voice recognition software for Mac and some of the Olympus digital voice recorders like the WS-311M, DS-30 and the new DS-5000iD.

If you are on or near the Central Coast please send us an email and we can arrange a time for you to come in and see just how good voice recognition is or how easy the Olympus range of digital voice recorders are to use.

MacSpeech Dictate - Version 1.2 Quick Look At Whats New Video

Now that the new version of MacSpeech Dictate, version 1.2, has been out for a few days we are now starting to get our teeth into the new functionality and features introduced in this release.


Spelling mode has finally arrived. This gives the user the ability to spell out words, acronyms, abbreviations or anything that MacSpeech Dictate is not able to interpret. This will be a great addition to the features of MacSpeech Dictate.


Phrase training has also been introduced. This is a very smart feature, as MacSpeech Dictate analyzes what you are saying, possible matching phrases appear in a "Recognition" window. If the spoken phrase required is not the one transcribed by Dictate the Recognition window will show a list of alternate phrases. The user simply needs to "pick" the corresponding number next to the required phrase and Dictate will insert that phrase instead. This has two major benefits, 1. it increases the speed of transcription as time is not wasted amending the dictation and 2. this process actually helps improve the accuracy of Dictate over time as it learns from your speech and dictation patterns.

These two new features can be seen briefly in our lastest MacSpeech Dictate YouTube video below.

Global Financial Crisis Hits Australian Pricing Of MacSpeech Dictate

We have today started to see the effects of the global financial crisis with an increase in the RRP for MacSpeech Dictate rising due to the cost of the US dollar against the Australian dollar.

The RRP has been raised to $329 incl. GST for the version which ships with the Plantronics DSP-400 headset and mic. 

The RRP has been raised to $469 incl. GST for the version which ships with the Parrott VXI Pro headset and mic.

This is unfortunate as the cost may tip some people over the edge when making their decision to invest in the amazing voice recognition software for the Mac, time will tell.

For any advice or questions on MacSpeech Dictate in Australia please email us at sales@dictate.com.au or use the Live Chat option on our website.

Its Here And Boy Is It Good ! MacSpeech Dictate

Voice recognition for Mac OS X users has finally arrived, it didn't just fly in on a chartered flight this software arrived in a stretched limo it is that special.

For a few years now Mac users have lagged behind the Windites with their Dragon Naturally Speaking but not anymore. MacSpeech Dictate which is powered by the Dragon engine from the people at Nuance is really something special.

It is version 1.0 so yes not every single feature you would expect of a mature voice recognition software package is there ... yet ! Regular updates are promised and will happen quite soon.

In the meantime there are quite a few YouTube videos floating around including some made by us showing Dictate in action.

Here are just a couple ....

Coming To Australia - Speech Recognition On Mac

Something we are very excited about here at Dictate Australia is the soon to arrive Dictate speech recognition software from MacSpeech. Dictate is the latest release of MacSpeech's very popular iListen software but Dictate will be powered by the voice recognition engine used by the highly successful and very popular Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking software.
Latest news is that Dictate will hit Australia towards the end of Q1 2008. This will be followed by the Transcription Pak which will allow the use of digital voice recorders to do deferred transcription, the process of processing speech from audio recorded on a digital voice recorder. Currently MacSpeech have certified the Olympus DS-2300 and DS-4000 models to work with the Transcription Pak.

We plan to become a leading reseller in Australia for Dictate solutions with digital voice recorders. For any questions on Dictate or iListen you can direct them to us sales@dictate.com.au

For the latest information Dictate in Australia please keep an eye on www.iDictate.com.au